Tony Barrett (1916–1974), with a list of radio episodes written by Tony Barrett

Radio Row, fall 1945

 

Actor and writer Tony Barrett (Wikipedia) was born Martin Lefkowitz in New York City on May 24, 1916.

Background

A 24 Aug 1945 Radio Chart newspaper piece on Tony Barrett (found in the Hazelton, PA, Plain Speaker) says that he was of theatrical parents, had a walk-on in his father's comedy vaudeville act as a small child, and learned all types of dancing from his father. But a line in Dorothy Kilgallen's The Voice of Broadway gossip column earlier that year (7 Feb 1945) reads: "Millionaire S. H. Barrett may use the courts to restrain his son, Tony Barrett, from further pursuit of his acting career. Wants him to run the factories and 'stop fooling around' . . . "

Before digging into it I assumed this latter item was an obvious joke on Dorothy Kilgallen. But—although I haven't found any other mention of his trying to restrain his son's acting career, and I don't know that he didn't teach him to dance—historical records indicate that Martin Lefkowitz's father really was a wealthy manufacturer! (In fact, from the concurrence of addresses across newspapers, directories and census data, it appears he was the same Samuel Howard Lefkowitz who reportedly had his front teeth set with diamonds in 1913, and eleven years later had the diamonds put into a ring instead, for fear of hold-up men with dental forceps.)

Other notes on Martin Lefkowitz's early life: among other international travels, young Martin went with his family on a West Indies cruise in 1928; and S. Howard Lefkowitz made multiple trips to Cuba in the 20s and 30s. These early Latin American connections may have influenced Tony Barrett's later creative work: he played numerous radio roles with a Mexican accent, and quite a few of his radio and television scripts are set in Latin America.

Acting career

Regardless of how exactly he got his start, Tony Barrett (who legally changed his name to Anthony Barrett in September 1940) was a professional dancer by 1940, and switched to radio acting by 1943. He became a very busy New York radio actor, specializing in accents and often playing multiple roles in the same broadcast. One newspaper column in February 1945 claimed Barrett had played more than 75 radio characterizations within the past 30 days, and in March 1945 he was reported to have been on six radio programs in one day. His recurring roles included sidekick Shorty on Boston Blackie between 1944-04-25 and 1945-11-29, and the ghostly George Kerby for most of The Adventures of Topper in summer 1945. Other New York radio programs in which Tony Barrett is known to have acted include Armstrong Theatre, Big Town, Famous Jury Trials, Five Star Final, Kate Smith Hour, Man Behind the Gun, March of Time, Mollé Mystery Theater, Pepper Young's Family, Portia Faces Life, Report to the Nation, Ten From Tokyo, This Life Is Mine, We The People, Woman of America, and Young Dr. Malone.

In January 1946 Tony Barrett motored to Hollywood with Frank Lovejoy and Jackson Beck. Barrett soon signed a two-year contract with RKO, under which he appeared in such films as The Falcon's Adventure, Born to Kill, Wild Horse Mesa and Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome; he later freelanced in films such as Impact (UA, 1949). Early in his Hollywood career, Tony Barrett was said to resemble Rudolph Valentino, and was reportedly considered for the leading role in a Valentino biopic which never materialized. An item in the Salt Lake Telegram of 10 Jan 1947 reads:

Tony Barrett has been reported in 16 different screen tests as the "ideal romantic hero type" for the screen but he dies so well that he can snare only villain roles since usually only villains die in pictures. In R K O Radio's "Seven Keys to Baldpate," his seventh picture seven months after entering pictures, he perishes again.

Other newspaper items in 1946 called Barrett the most murdered man in Hollywood, and claimed that he had died 801 times in movies and radio.

In addition to movie acting, Barrett continued as a busy and versatile radio actor in Hollywood. Daily Variety of 30 September 1946 reported that he was doing an average of 12 radio shows a week, and the Long Beach Press-Telegram of 17 January 1948 reported that he appeared on six radio shows every week. His regular radio roles in Hollywood included sidekick Marc Donovan on The Adventures of Frank Race and the narrator and radio voice on Tales of the Texas Rangers—and he frequently doubled as one-off characters in both programs. Other Hollywood radio programs on which Tony Barrett was an actor include All-Star Western Theatre; Bold Venture; Broadway's My Beat; The Couple Next Door; Dangerous Assignment; Defense Attorney; Dr. Paul; Escape; Family Theatre; Hallmark Playhouse; Let George Do It; Richard Diamond, Private Detective; Rocky Jordan; Romance; Screen Directors Playhouse; Stars Over Hollywood; Suspense; The Line-Up; Lux Radio Theatre; NBC University Theatre; This Is Your FBI; Wild Bill Hickok; and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.

Radio writing

Tony Barrett went on to become a successful television writer and producer, including writing or co-writing 63 episodes of Peter Gunn and developing The Mod Squad. He also did some writing for radio. Here is a list of the Tony Barrett–penned radio episodes I have found listed on RadioGOLDINdex, mentioned in historical periodicals, and/or listed in the finding aid for the Tony Barrett Papers (herein TBP)—I have not consulted the papers themselves, but this list may be of interest as a preliminary overview of Barrett's radio writing work.

Escape 1952-12-28 "Nightmare in the Sun"

A matador hero of Anthony Barrett's "Nightmare in the Sun," KNX at 6:30. —Hollywood Citizen-News, 1952-12-27

[Script available in SPERDVAC library. Tony Barrett played the ambitious young matador Pepe, and Jack Kruschen had the leading role as his brother Miguel.]

[Barrett wrote a script of the same title for television's Burke's Law, 1965-10-20. That story was also set in Mexico, but involved a political assassination plot.]

Escape 1954-06-17 "Bloodwaters"

Escape 1954-09-18 "The Target"

Hollywood Star Playhouse 1951-05-07 "Death Is a Right Hook" by Antony Ellis and Anthony Barrett; repeated on 1952-03-23.

Dan Dailey portrays a young man whose ambitions exceed his ability in "Death Is a Right Hook" on Hollywood Star Playhouse, KCBS, 9 p.m. —The Berkeley Gazette, 1951-05-07

Screen actor Barry Sullivan will star in "Death Is a Right Hook" on "Hollywood Star Playhouse" today at 5 p.m. on WROL. Barnstorming American heavyweight Jimmy Dunlavy (Barry Sullivan) finds the climate a bit too hot for him in Mexico when he is offered $5000 by a wealthy Mexican to fight Mexico's heavyweight champion. Jimmy, whose usual take is $100, suspects the worst. He appears to be worth more dead than alive, but the fighter has some ideas of his own. —The Knoxville Journal 1952-03-23

Hollywood Star Playhouse 1952-07-20 "Step Right Up and Die"

John Lund, screen and radio star, will portray Joe Martin, a fun-house owner who is accused of murder, in "Step Right Up and Die" on "Hollywood Star Playhouse" over WGBF today at 4 p.m. —Evansville Courier and Press, 1952-07-20

[TBP list an undated script of this title under Hollywood Star Playhouse, and an outline and short story treatment of the same title under TV's Schlitz Playhouse of Stars; the story, which sounds like it was the same story, was produced on Schlitz Playhouse of Stars on 1956-04-27.]

Hollywood Star Playhouse 1952-09-21 "Last Chance"

Charlton Heston, one of Hollywood's new leading men, stars in "The Last Chance," drama of native superstition in the South American jungle. —The Miami News, 1952-09-21

Hollywood Star Playhouse 1952-10-06 "Sitting Duck"

Dane Clark, star of Broadway and Hollywood, enacts the role of private detective Sam Dexter, a man who is tempted by the money he is hired to recover, on "Hollywood Star Playhouse" Oct. 12 over NBC-radio.

Authored by radio actor-writer Anthony Barrett, the play is entitled "Sitting Duck."

In the drama Dexter is hired not for his sleuthing ability but as a decoy to recover $100,000 for an insurance company. The money was stolen and hidden by a bank teller who is serving a five-year jail term. –South Gate Daily Press-Tribune 1952-10-06

[TBP also include a script with the same title for Ford Television Theater, 1957-03-21, and an undated script with the same title for the unrealized TV series Johnny Nighthawk.]

O'Hara 1956-06-10 "The Legend"

O'Hara 1956-06-21 "The Set-Up"

On Stage 1953-11-04 "Vickie" by Ross Murray and Anthony Barrett

A woman marries a man to destroy him in "Vickie," by Ross Murray and Tony Barrett, on CBS Radio's "Cathy and Elliott Lewis Onstage," Wednesday, Nov. 4. —New Pittsburgh Courier, 1953-10-24

Romance 1956-12-08 "The Guitar" (starring Tony Barrett!)

Tales of the Texas Rangers 1951-12-23 "Christmas Payoff"

Tales of the Texas Rangers 1952-02-18 "Smart Kill"

Tums Hollywood Theater 1951-11-27 "The Sixty-Foot Grave"

Tyrone Power is the lead at 9:30 over KFI in "The Sixty Foot Grave" by Anthony Barrett, radio actor known as Tony Barrett. His characterization is that of a deep-sea diver, Robert McKay, in Venezuela. The one person who knows the secret of his past comes along. —Hollywood Citizen-News 1951-11-27

Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar 1956-06-25–29 "The Alder Matter"

Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar 1956-08-06–10 "The Long Shot Matter"

A selection of odd Whistler commercials from 1946

Signal Premium Motor Oil ad from the Pasadena Star-News, 31 May 1946

(The following is by no means a comprehensive treatment of noteworthy commercials on The Whistler, I just wanted to share some that struck me as particularly amusing! If the embedded audio does not work, the hyperlink at the start of each description should go to the same clip.)

1946-04-15 "Smart Boy"

First commercial:  An actress asks Marvin Miller about tonight's big news.  Miller tells her about new Signal Premium Motor Oil, and concludes by saying it's the oil that...  And Gerald Mohr's distinctive voice booms out with an echo effect:  "Keeps motors six times cleaner!  Reduces cylinder wear one-third!"

Second commercial:  A mostly normal commercial, but Mohr with the echo effect comes in again near the end to repeat "Keeps motors six times cleaner!  Reduces cylinder wear one-third!"

1946-04-22 "The Waterford Case"

First commercial:  Miller and several of the actors take turns repeating "Keeps motors six times cleaner!" / "Reduces cylinder wear one-third!"  After that, Miller goes into his spiel, and Mohr comes in with the echo again between segments of the spiel to deliver the words "Signal Premium Motor Oil!"

Second commercial: "The Whistler will return in just a moment with the strange ending of tonight's story.  But now, here's a little lady who seems to have a perplexed look on her face.  What's the question, Miss Margetts?"  Monty Margetts, the secondary female lead in the drama, asks Marvin Miller about the five compounds in Signal Premium Motor Oil.  At the end of his explanation, another of the actors comes in to say what so many drivers are saying:  "I'm making my next oil change a change to..." and Mohr with the echo finishes, "Signal Premium Motor Oil!"

This was before the program had any cast credits (the earliest surviving Whistler episode with "Featured in tonight's cast..." is 1946-06-03 "The Judas Face")—which means that "Miss Margetts" here is likely the first actor named in a Whistler broadcast!

(1946-04-29 "My Love Comes Home" is missing. Gerald Mohr is also in the cast of 1946-05-06 "Bright Horizon," but no network recording survives, so I don't know whether he continued to reverberantly advertise Signal Premium Motor Oil.)

1946-09-09 "Witness at the Fountain"

First commercial:  "With the prologue of 'The Witness at the Fountain,' the Signal Oil Company brings you another strange tale by The Whistler.  But now here's a question for you drivers to try your wits on.  What three things can your speedometer tell you?  Three, that is.  Now let's see, whom shall I ask?  Oh, here's Virginia Gregg, one of Hollywood's most charming radio actresses.  What would your answer be, Virginia?"

Virginia answers that your speedometer tells her how fast you're going and how far you've gone, and then Marvin talks her through why Signal says "look to your speedometer for the best proof of gasoline quality!"

Featured in the cast of this episode were Howard Duff and Margaret Brayton; Gregg presumably played the maid.

1946-10-14 "Weak Sister"

First commercial:  Peggy Webber, who has a leading role in the drama as a disturbed older woman, doubles in the commercial as an attractive young woman who flirts with Marvin Miller as she asks him to explain how her speedometer can show the quality of the gasoline she's using.  It's bizarre, but also really funny and charming??

A list of Signal Oil references in The Whistler

1945-10-08 Death Laughs Last (Harold Swanton)

 "Where'd you say the mailbox is?"
 "There's one down the road at the next corner.  Right by the Signal Oil station."

1945-04-02 The Return of the Innocent (J. Donald Wilson)

"Well, I gotta run along now.  If you want me, I'll be at my cabin a half-mile up the mountain.  Just up the main road, and turn off when you come to the big Signal Oil station."

1946-04-08 Terror Stricken (Walter Jensen)

"I'll pick you up in front of the Signal station at Runyon and Broadmoor tomorrow morning at eight, right?"

1946-07-15 Custom-Built Blonde (Will Pryor)

"Their car jumped a curb and crashed through a Signal Oil billboard about an hour ago.  Stafford was crumpled over the wheel with a couple of bullets in him, and Burton was sittin' next to him, dead from a couple of slugs."

1946-08-26 Brief Pause for Murder (Lou Houston and Bill Forman)

"Let's see, at 9:45 we've got the Signal Oil sports broadcast on the net from Hollywood, then we take Murder Manor from New York..."

(In the 1946-09-08 Chicago production and the 1949-09-11 Signal production of Brief Pause, they've "got a band on the net from Hollywood" instead.)

1947-02-24 Eight to Twelve (Joel Malone and Harold Swanton)

"And another thing, your gasoline gauge looks almost empty.  There's a Signal Oil station on the next corner, perhaps we'd better stop."

1948-09-15 Uncle Ben's Widow (Jim Lehner)

"It's a shortcut, Monnie.  When we reach the Signal Oil station at the bottom of the grade, we'll turn into the main highway."

1948-12-19 The Hangtree Affair (Joel Malone and Adrian Gendot)

"Look, how do you get out there to the cemetery?"
"Oh, easy, just go right down the end of C street here, and then turn left by the Signal oil station and go up the road...."

1949-03-13 Search for Maxine (Harold Swanton)

"Alvarado Street, Ted, that's where she was.  Probably in that big apartment house opposite the Signal Oil station on the corner."

(When this story was used as Four Hours to Kill on Phillip Morris Playhouse 1949-05-13, Suspense 1950-01-12, and Murder by Experts 1950-06-19, Ted deduces that the girl lives somewhere around 71st Street, "an apartment, maybe a residential hotel, facing Central Park.")

1949-07-24 The Hermit (Ben S. Hunter)

"Uncle Ben, this gentleman's car ran out of gas.  He wonders if he might use the phone."
"I wanna call the Signal station down the road."

1949-09-25 Incident at Arroyo Grande (David H. Ross)

"Finally, several miles down the road, you approach an intersection.  And there near the lights of a Signal Oil station, what you see helps to calm your nerves..."

1950-07-02 Quiet Sunday (Bernard Girard and Zane Mann)

"Well, I--I just don't want you to be late!  [Changing the tire]'ll only take a minute.  Besides, there's a Signal service station in the next block!"

(In the original 1946-06-10 production of Quiet Sunday, this line ends after "It'll only take me a minute.")

1951-11-04 Man on the Run (Adrian Gendot)

"Well, it shouldn't take you more than twenty minutes or so.  Just turn off the main highway three miles past Denton, at the Signal service station."

1952-03-09 Breakaway (Adrian Gendot)

"You the fellow that put in the call?"
"Yeah.  Me and my partner run the Signal gas station down the road."

1952-04-06 Element X (Adrian Gendot)

"My place is all by itself, just past that Signal Oil station, on the beachfront."

(In the 1955-02-13 production of Element X, his place is "all by itself, just past the Mar Vista turnoff on the beachfront...")

1954-02-28 Feature Story (no credits on surviving recording)

"Say tell me, where would be a good place for us to stay a day or so, huh?"
"Best place around here is the Desert Motel, just at the edge of town, right next to that big Signal station."

1954-08-01 Borrowed Future (Adrian Gendot)

"Oh, there's a Signal station up ahead.  You can call him from there."

1954-09-12 Landslide (story reused from 1952-03-09 Breakaway)

"You the fellow who put in the call to my office?"
"Yeah, I work at the Signal gas station down the road."

Bonus: an apparent slip of the tongue in 1949-04-03 The Rawhide Coffin.  Instead of "single room," it sounds like the hotel clerk says,

"We'll let you have the very next Signal room that's vacant!"

 

 

[Update 2026-01-01:]  In scans of some of these scripts (evidently at various stages of revision), we can see the sponsor references being added!

 

1947-02-24 "Eight to Twelve," p. 14

1948-09-15 "Uncle Ben's Widow," p. 14
Page header says (2ND REV)

1948-12-19 "The Hangtree Affair," p. 17
No Signal reference yet!